Vacuum trucks and other industrial vacuums are designed to pneumatically collect solids, liquids, sludge or slurry through vacuum hoses and into a tank or canister. Industrial vacuums are used in a variety of industries (e.g., petroleum, natural gas, drilling, etc.) and for collecting a variety of materials.
As a specific example, in drilling operations, a fluid commonly referred to as “mud” is circulated from the surface, downward through a drill pipe and out openings in the drill bit at the bottom of a borehole. The mud may include hydrocarbons, lubricants and other chemicals that assist in the drilling process. After exiting the drill bit at the bottom of the borehole, the mud along with other material from the borehole (often referred to collectively as “cuttings”), are pushed back upward through the borehole to the surface. Once at the surface, the cuttings that are extracted from the borehole may be processed in order to separate the mud from the other material. The mud may then be recycled and sent back down the drill pipe, and the material that is separated from the mud may be collected into a separate area or container. The material that is separated from the mud, which is commonly referred to as “sludge,” may include a mixture of different solids, such as stone, dirt, clay, and salt. It is also common for sludge to include nonsolid components, such as water, oil, mud, and other fluids. In some instances, the drilling mud and sludge may be collected at a site or removed from a collection area/container using a vacuum truck. In particular, an operator may use the vacuum truck's vacuum/suction hose to pneumatically remove (e.g., suction) the materials from the collection area/container. Once the materials are collected, the vacuum truck can also be used to transport the collected materials to another site for treatment or disposal.
Although vacuum trucks and other industrial vacuums are very useful in a variety of settings, operation and handling of vacuum hoses can present a number of disadvantages and problems. First, because of the powerful suction forces created by the vacuums, manually handling vacuum hoses requires a great deal of physical strength and energy. This is aggravated by the need to keep the vacuum hoses at a proper position and angle with respect to the materials being suctioned in order to achieve the most efficient collection of the materials. The inability to manually maintain the suction hose at a proper position and angle often results in the inefficient collection of waste materials, thereby increasing the time and energy necessary to complete the collection process. In addition, manually handling the suction hose presents a number of safety and regulatory concerns. For example, manually handling the suction hose requires the handler to be located close to the end of the vacuum hose and/or within a collection area/container where the material being collected is located, which gives rise to risks of physical injury to the handler as well as regulatory restrictions for the handler and his/her employer.